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Exhibition
Games and Politics

Kult Gallery

11 Upper Wilkie Road
228120 Singapore

An interactive exhibition of games, art and politics

The video game culture is a worldwide new media subculture which has evolved over time. Video games can be seen as pure entertainment, as art form, or as political statements. Games and Politics encourages the visitor to try out sixteen video games and in the process, the player can examine how each game unfold their unique political potential and contemplate the scope and limitations of the video game genre.

The selected games cover a wide range of political and social topics. The political aspect of these games becomes visible to the players either directly as they make decisions affecting social groups and economies to win elections (Democracy 3), or indirectly as they witness social injustices such as precarious labour conditions (Sunset), the treatment of refugees (Escape from Woomera) and address gender issues (Perfect Woman). The games also lead the players to confrontations with the surveillance state (Touchtone) and the consequences of armed conflicts (This War of Mine). Adopting the characters of often-marginalized people, players experience limited possibilities and negative sanctions through both the characters and the game play.

Visitors can also view an introductory film about political games and short documentaries about some of the games. The accompanying exhibition catalogue provides background information on the unifying concepts of these independent games.

Games and Politics is an interactive exhibition of the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and has toured in countries such as the United States, Philippines and Indonesia. Presented by the Goethe-Institut and Kult Gallery in Singapore, the exhibition also features new and existing artworks by artists based in Singapore that respond to the content of the games.

featured games

1378(km) (Jens M. Stober, 2010)

Coming Out Simulator 2014 (Nicky Case, 2014)

Democracy 3 (Positech Games, 2013)

Dys4ia (Newgrounds, Anna Anthropy, 2012)

Escape from Woomera (Katharine Neil, et.al., 2004)

Killbox (Biome Collective, 2016)

Madrid (Gonzalo Frasca, 2004)

Orwell (Osmotic, 2016)

Papers, Please (3909, Lucas Pope, 2013)

Perfect Woman (Peter Lu & Lea Schönfelder, 2016)

Phone Story (Molleindustria, 2011)

Sunset (Tale of Tales, 2015)

The Cat and the Coup (Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad, 2011)

The Westport Independent (Double Zero One Zero, 2016)

This War Of Mine (11 bit studios, 2014)

TouchTone (Mikengreg, 2015)

Unmanned (Mollenindustria, 2012)

Yellow Umbrella (Awesapp, 2014)

Mature themes are addressed in the exhibition. ID checks will be conducted for NC16 content.